The All-Star Weekend dunk contest participants were announced yesterday: Gerald Green, Dwight Howard, Tyrus Thomas and defending champ Nate Robinson. Through our various “inside sources” we’d already known about Nate, G-Money and Dwight for a while, but when one of the Dime crew found out Tyrus was the fourth guy yesterday, not even kidding, he gave us 15 guesses on who was No. 4, and no one guessed Tyrus. The kid’s a sick athlete and all, but have you seen him do a nasty dunk that wasn’t on a lob? He’s dunks hard, but does he have that creativity?

And for that matter, how creative can the tank that is Dwight Howard be in the air? If the League insists on the “rising stars” caveat, we would have picked Rudy Gay and J.R. Smith. Or how about Smush? He can get up … The dunk contest also implemented what amounts to the Nate Robinson Rule: that once you get the ball from the ref, you have two minutes to complete your dunk. If you don’t do it in those two minutes, you’ll have two more chances to dunk, but that’s it. So no more watching Nate try to do the double-between-the-legs lob 100 times like last year … While discussing Howard, this question came up in the Dime office yesterday: Out of the current high school-to-pros NBA players, who will ultimate have the greatest career? Dwight has to be considered, but you’ve also got Kobe, T-Mac, KG, LeBron, Amare and more. Tell us your pick and why , and we’ll run some of the best answers in an upcoming issue of Dime … Dirk will try to defend his Three-Point Shootout crown against a field that includes Damon Jones. How funny – and likely – would it be if DJ walks into the locker room doing the Larry Bird “Which one of you is gonna finish second” routine? … Have you seen this video of Gilbert Arenas and DeShawn Stevenson’s shooting contest? According to the Washington Post, Gil laid down a $20,000 bet with DeShawn (his best friend on the team) that he could hit more college three-pointers with one hand than DeShawn could hit NBA treys with two hands. Hilarity ensues … Arenas was shooting with two hands against the Sonics last night, but wasn’t near as hot as he was in the video, going 4-for-14 from the field. The Sonics went up 10 on the Wizards early in the third, and even the Washington announcers seemed to be conceding the game. Then Caron Butler went off. He started giving Seattle buckets, and by the time the third quarter was over (on a Caron steal and buzzer-beating trey), the Wizards were up by nine and on their way to a W. Caron finished with 38 points … Carmelo gave it all he had (31 pts, 10 rebs, 10 asts) playing the Suns without an injured Allen Iverson (ankle), but even with Nene’s career day (27 pts), it wasn’t enough to hang with Phoenix’s firepower. Amare Stoudemire dropped 36 and 13 boards. Steve Nash hurt his shoulder in the first half and didn’t return after halftime … The Suns dropped from the top spot in our updated NBA Hit List. Where do they rank now, and who leapfrogged them? Find out here … Now, we’re not making another Michael Jordan comparison, but Kobe Bryant looks to have a good handle on Mike’s old method of getting everyone involved before taking over whenever needed. After being held to nine at halftime, Mamba dropped 11 of his 27 points in the fourth – including nine straight at one point – to lift the Lakers past the Hawks on the road. Lamar Odom had 15 points and 18 boards … Josh Smith had two crazy dunks, including one reverse alley oop that had the announcers going nutty and his own bench going bananas. Too bad J-Smoove said he doesn’t wanna do the dunk contest anymore … Ben Wallace has been especially awful on offense lately, so of course he goes and hits a three last night. The Bulls still lost to the Jazz, though. Deron Williams went for 18 and 13 dimes. Tyrus didn’t get any tick – saving the legs for All-Star Weekend, we’d presume … Stephen Jackson hung 36 on his old team in Golden State’s blowout win over the Pacers, getting booed by the Indiana crowd during intros and whenever he touched the rock (which was often). The crowd went nuts when Darrell Armstrong swatted S-Jack’s layup in the second half, even going so far as to give D.A. a standing O. Al Harrington had 16 and 10 boards, while Mike Dunleavy went for 11 and 13. Troy Murphy (nose), Ike Diogu, Keith McLeod and Sarunas Jasikevicius played limited minutes … Gary Payton was suspended for yesterday’s Heat/Bobcats game for jawing at the refs in Saturday’s win over Milwaukee. With J-Will also on the shelf, Chris Quinn ran point. Miami might have been better off giving D-Wade the PG reigns, starting Jason Kapono at the two and ’Toine or James Posey at the three. But they were playing the ‘Cats, so it didn’t really matter … Steven Hunter, a Chicago native, told reporters he’s never wearing his Rex Grossman jersey again. “He acted like he didn’t know how to play football,” Hunter said. “We need to put him and Steve Bartman away.” … In college ball, Kevin Durant became a made man last night, getting the full-on Dickie V treatment in the nationally televised Texas/Texas A&M game. Durant put up 28 and 15 in a loss, but needless to say, Dickie V loves the kid (we’re not gonna lie, so do we); he’s already putting his name in the same sentence with LeBron and Carmelo, to name a few. Can you imagine if Durant went to Duke? Vitale would have to be helped from press row … Once upon a time, UConn/Syracuse would have been must-see TV. Last night the two unranked squads played the undercard to The Durant Show. UConn got the home win … The Jordan Classic High School All-Americans were named recently, highlighted by O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose and Jerryd Bayless. The guards in this senior class are ridiculous, if you haven’t noticed … We’re out like betting against Arenas …